Thanks to everyone for your continuing feedback on the Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced! Remember that you can get the game on Steam, GOG and Zoom Platform, and join the EFS Discord HERE.

This update prioritizes three areas:

1. Quality-of-life fixes you have told us will make a big difference for you;
2. Bug fixes (thankful to say that while there are a number of these, none were especially big); and
3. Improvements for the map editor and modding.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

Okay, you were right. These REALLY speed up gameplay – just watch our most recent streams!

New Message Window

This was easily one of the most-requested QoL changes. At the start of your turn you will see a new Messages dialog, with all the messages on one screen, You can exit out of these and never have to respond to most of them. 

This means that you no longer receive a lot of building prompts at the start of a turn. Instead, you get a list and can resolve each city at your convenience, either through this new message screen or by visiting the city itself. Cities default to “No Production” if you do not give them anything new to produce.

Note that while you still need to respond to diplomatic entreaties (especially threats of war), we added a setting to the EFS.ini file so you can turn this feature off for most diplomatic requests.

We are aware of a graphic glitch that puts lines under the message (and other text) when you play at 1366 x 768 resolution. We hope you do not find this a problem, but we are looking into it.

No More Build Confirmation

This in itself shaves a lot of time off turns, especially later in the game. EFSe no longer asks for confirmation when starting unit production, or when building nothing. The prompt still appears if you change production from one unit to another to ensure you do not inadvertently waste resources.

More QoL

• Added support for razing roads – the Build Road command now razes instead if a road is already there. Neither costs movement
• Added health penalty tooltips
• Transports can now also be loaded by dragging the unit to another unit already in the transport and not requiring you take the unit off the transport first
• Fixed some inconsistencies with unloading transports
• Fixed “Select All” functionality when the current selection is sentried,
• Added clergy counts to cathedral descriptions
• The AI now correctly follows the 20 unit stack limitation

Bug Fixes

What bugs? We are just changing unintended functionality to intended 😉 Okay, I admit … they were bugs

Ministry Unit Confusion

This update addresses a few cases of the player’s own units intermingling with ministry units under player control (a so-called mixed stack), which caused a number of issues both technical and design-wise:

• Fixed a bug where units captured using ministry units would be assigned to the player’s House.
• Fixed a bug where claiming the reward from a cleared ruin using ministry units would create a mixed stack. The reward is assigned to the player’s own House. The ministry unit used to claim it remains outside. An exception to this is when defending spaceships capitulate in the ruin tile. To avoid a mixed stack situation, moving a ministry unit in to claim the reward will also place it under ministry control. Move ministry units out first to keep it for yourself!
• Fixed buying from an Agora could place House resources among ministry units. Purchased resources will be given to the player’s House if there is room to do so without creating a mixed stack. Purchased resources will be placed under the control of the player’s ministry if only ministry cities and units have room. These resources can be used to produce either house or ministry units, but will be lost if the ministry changes owners!
• Fixed Naval Transports not understanding House and ministry boundaries when loading and unloading units.
• Fixed ministry cities overflowing their production into a tile occupied by units from the player’s house.
• Fixed some problems with assigning ministries
• Fixed all ministries having to share the same 20 units limit in space. Now each ministry can now bring a full 20 units without hindering the others.

Lab/Research Fixes

• Fixed research progression loss when assigning an additional lab.
• Fixed lost lab research overflow after selecting ‘Nothing’.
• Fixed out of control inactive labs count in the research window.
• Fixed some problems with research point calculations

General Bug Fixes

• Fixed crashes when disbanding units from the Group Finder
• Fixed a rare crash when embarking unit into adjacent transports could crash the game
• Fixed a hung game if a minister’s House is eliminated in the same turn the Ministry is assigned.
• Fixed a bug where interrupting a unit’s movement with the spacebar would teleport the next unit moved.
• Fixed when Space, Jump or Lander move types couldn’t exit a transport on a river tile.
• Fixed Zero-movement units being able to board transports
• New units are no longer built on top of ruins if there’s no free space in the actual city
• Fixed problems with splitting some cargo types
• Fixed a rare issue that was causing some units to be invisible and unselectable
• AI bombardment now always respects movement point count
• Plague no longer infects ruins
• Fixed a regression causing empty cities to not build units correctly
• Fixed some issues with ship movement in coastal cities
• Removed some ruins that were hidden under cities on the standard map
• Fixed a problem with transports being disbandable while loaded
• Fixed other very rare crashes

Modding/Map Editor

• Improved map editor import – added an Update All Planets option
• Added functionality to the map editor – randomize and clear planets
• Improved randomization in the map editor
• Fixed naval transports that do not have Naval move type (only happens in mods)
• Added ability to mod some Byzantium Secundus behavior, especially in how AI builds and uses units
• Map editor CSV import improvements – Fixed special characters in mass save
• Fixed some map editor crashes,
• Added an efs.ini setting to auto-reject unresolved treaties – prompt_treaties_end_turn. Even on auto-reject, treaties threatening war must be replied to

From the journals of Guiseppe Alustro, December 24^th, 5023, Holy Terra:

As the glowing embers in the nearby grate warm my study and I prepare to record recent events, I am reminded of that pilgrim I encountered those many years ago on Nowhere. We had joined a caravan to journey to the Gargoyle and encountered, late in the evening, a similar caravan returning from that goliath’s site. Among them was an old hesychast named Martina. I could see in her eyes a certain light, which I deduced to be a fervor evoked by an encounter with Urzenkai. I asked to join her by the fire. Young and impertinent, I intruded upon her hospitality by asking what I later learned was considered to be a terribly rude question on Nowhere. I asked her what the Gargoyle had shown her.

She stared at me for a while, judging me. Perhaps my sincerity shone through, as she eventually gave a curt nod and gazed into the fire. “Gifts. So many gifts. We are told that the Pancreator’s grace is tiring, like the light in the dying embers of this fire. We are fools, like children on Lux Splendor who have opened all our presents and complain that there are no more to unwrap. The Pancreator’s creation is endless. Are there not always more presents when Lux Splendor comes around again? So it is with the universe.”

I nodded. It was a heartwarming message, but not the thunderous prophecy I expected from the Gargoyle. As I rose to rejoin my companions, she spoke again. “Worry not, young Alustro. Urzenkai has a message for you.” This halted me. I had not given her my family name, only my first name. I opened my mouth to speak but she had pulled the hood over her head, signaling that she was done speaking.

She spoke truly, of course. The Gargoyle did give my lady and I a vision of great import. Yet, only now, as I think back upon it, do I believe that her message of grace and gifts was the more important one.